The Courage Campaign has posted an interesting chart of productive time wasted due to traffic congestion in Los Angeles:
They contend that for every year of work a person does in the office, three weeks worth of time is wasted in a car.
Availability also must be a worry, especially in cases of regional disasters, as congestion can only get worse when everyone has to act at the same time (in response) rather than with the intent to keep their own schedule.
As someone with a long commute, these types of statistics make me cringe. But, there is a solution – telecommuting, telecommuting, telecommuting! One of my goals in ’08 is to work remotely more often. Go ahead, automakers, spend billions trying to eek out another 5 mpg in your hybrids. I have a VPN that gets infinite miles per gallon!